Young man blackmailed after sex chat commits suicide

A young Norwegian man took his own life after being deceived to perform sexual acts online. Now Kripos (Crime Division) have warned against cynical scammers.

Kripos have revealed several victims of sexual blackmail online where men are deceived into performing sexual acts in order to blackmail them for money .

Kripos started their investigation in the autumn of 2017 after a young Norwegian man exposed to this took his own life.

“We can say that there is an entirely direct causal connection between the extortion he was exposed to and his suicide,” said prosecutor and police attorney, Ole Kristian Bjørge of Kripos to VG newspaper.

Kripos are believed to have found close to one hundred potential offenders in the cases they’ve investigated. The method is well-known and has been going on for many years. The police also have reason to believe there are several such Norwegian victims.

This form of sexual extortion has been uncovered both in Norway and abroad in a new action called ‘Operation Malstrøm’, according to NRK news.

Extremely cynical

The extortion occurs when men are deceived into performing sexual acts on themselves during video chat services while confidently believing they are communicating with a woman. They later receive threats that the recording will be shared with their friends and family, unless they meet an immediate monetary requirement.

‘’This is an organised, professional and extremely cynical form of extortion. This is an ongoing investigation, and we are still working actively to find out both incidents and who are behind them,” said Bjørge to VG newspaper.

Morocco

The investigation is a collaboration between Kripos, Europol, Interpol and the police in several countries.

According to Kripos, everything indicates that the perpetrators are abroad, and the evidence so far points to certain countries in Europe and Africa.

The BBC made a documentary about this form of extortion in 2016. It appeared that the perpetrators were in Morocco and that the victims were largely young men from Arab countries. The BBC then spoke to both victims and perpetrators who explained how the fraud took place.

Kripos says ‘do not pay’

‘’Do not pay what the extortioners ask. If you pay, usually additional demands will be made for more money’’, stressed Kripos.

Kripos asked everyone to be very careful when on chat services with unknown people.

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